South Korea’s imports of silicon wafers from China have increased year by year
Silicon is the material primarily used in semiconductor manufacturing, although other types of materials, such as gallium nitride or silicon carbide, are sometimes used. In most cases, however, silicon wafers are used in the manufacturing process. As one of the major semiconductor powers, South Korea imports a large number of silicon wafers from overseas each year for semiconductor manufacturing.
According to The Elec, the total value of silicon wafers imported from China by South Korea in January of this year was $74.882 million, close to the total value of silicon wafers imported from Japan in the same month, which was $77.704 million. In fact, South Korea’s imports of silicon wafers from China have been steadily increasing over the past few years. Even during a period of downturn in the global semiconductor market, imports of silicon wafers from China continued to grow, while imports from Japan declined.
A photo released May 28, 2019, at Computex 2019 shows a 10th Gen Intel Core processor wafer. 10th Gen Intel mobile processors unveiled at Computex enable fast, immersive experiences with up to 4 cores and 8 threads, up to 4.1 GHz max turbo frequency and up to 1.1 GHz graphics frequency. (Source: Intel Corporation)
In 2020, South Korea imported a total of $442 million worth of silicon wafers from China, which increased to $563 million in 2021 and further to $777 million in 2022. Over the same three-year period, the total amount of silicon wafers imported by South Korea from Japan was $916 million, $948 million, and $897 million, respectively. In the past, South Korea mainly imported silicon wafers from Japan, with the global silicon wafer market valued at approximately $12 billion.
The world’s top five silicon wafer suppliers occupy over 95% of the market. According to SEMI data, the top five suppliers in 2021 were Shin-Etsu (Japan), Sumco (Japan), GlobalWafers (Taiwan, China), SK Siltron (South Korea), and Siltronic (Germany), with corresponding shares of 31.4%, 24.4%, 17.8%, 13.5%, and 9.5%, respectively. However, there have been significant changes in the market over the past two years, and some suppliers from China have not been included in SEMI’s data for many years.
One of the main reasons for South Korea’s increase in silicon wafer imports from China is cost, as the latter mostly supplies mid-to-low-end 6-inch and 8-inch silicon wafers. According to Korean customs data, the price of silicon wafers imported from Japan is between $550,000 and $650,000 per ton, while the price of silicon wafers imported from China is between $50,000 and $120,000 per ton.
